From the Gesta Henrici Quinti (The Exploits of Henry V), Translated by F Taylor & J.S. Roskel (1975)
"And on the following day, namely Friday on the Feast of St Crispin and Crispinian, 25 October, as dawn rose, the French positioned themselves in ranks, squadrons and wedges, and took their place in front of us on the field named Agincourt, across which was our route to Calais, and they were of a most terrifying number. Cohorts of cavalry stood in many hundreds on both sides of their vanguard in order to burst through our battle line and our force of archers. And that vanguard of soldiers on foot consisted of all the choicest noblemen: it was a forest of lances and a grave multitude of gleaming shields and cavalry at their sides, and was approximately thirty times greater than ours. But their rearguard and wings, squadrons and wedges were all on horseback, as if prepared for flight rather an to remain in place, and in respect to ours they were of an incomparable number."
"When the time came near for the enemy’s offensive, the French cavalry that
had been positioned on the sides made attacks against our archers who were on
either side of our army. But soon, as God willed, they were compelled to retreat
amidst the showers of arrows, and to flee to the rearguard, with the exception of a
very small number of men who ran amidst the archers and the groves, not without
slaughter and wounding; and indeed, with the exception of the many men whom
stakes driven into the ground and the barrage of missiles aimed at both horses and
knights held back from fleeing far away. Whereas the enemy missiles which were
aimed at the rear of the armed men and on their sides, after the first but hasty
movement, harmed very few people, they retreated at the strength of our bows."
"Then a most bitter battle raged, and our archers notched the ends of their
arrows and sent them against their flanks, continually renewing battle. When their
arrows had been used up, they took up axes, stakes, swords and the heads of lances
that lay between them, and laid the enemy low, ruining and transfixing them. For the
almighty and merciful God, who is always miraculous in His work, and who wanted
to show his mercy to us, whom it pleased that the crown of England, which has long
been invincible, to remain under the power of our gracious king, His soldier, and his
small retinue, as soon as the battle lines had been joined together and the battle
begun, increased our power that the shortage of our provisions had previously
debilitated and weakened, removed the terror from them, and gave them a fearless
heart. And it seemed to our elders that the English had never attacked their enemy
more bravely, intrepidly or wilfully."
And, military expedient or not, certainly the most tragic part of the battle:
"But then at once, for what wrath of God it is unknown, a shout arose that the
rearguard of the enemy’s cavalry was of an incomparable number and fresh, and
that they had restored their position and battle line in order to overcome us in our
small numbers and weary state. And the prisoners were killed at once, without any
heed to the difference between people, excepting the dukes of Orleans and Bourbon
and other illustrious men who were in the king’s battle line, along with a very few
others, by the swords of either their captors or others that followed them, lest they
should be ruinous to us in the ensuing battle.
But after a short while, the enemy ranks, according to the will of God once
they had tasted the bitterness of our weapons and our king had drawn close to
them, abandoned to us a field of blood along with carriages and their draughthorses, many being filled with provisions, weapons, lances and bows. And thus
when, on God’s orders, the strength of that people had been dissipated and the
rigours of the war had finished, we who had obtained victory returned through the
masses, mounds and piles of dead men, and saw and inspected them, but not
without the pain and tears of many, because so many outstanding and most
powerful soldiers – had only God been with them – had sought their own deaths in
such a manner from us, completely against our wishes, and had thus vainly
destroyed and broken up the glory and honour of their own dwelling place. And if
that was a site for compunction and piety in us as strangers passing by, how much
more lamentation and wailing did it cause for the local people, who were watching
and seeing the militia of their country being destroyed and despoiled in this manner!
And I truly believe that there is not a heart of flesh or even one of stone that, if it
had seen and considered the terrible deaths and bitter wounds of so many
Christians, would not have broken itself and dissolved into tears out of grief. Indeed,
however illustrious or respectable they were, the men, having been despoiled earlier
by our English pillagers, did not have on our retreat any more covering, except only
to cover their nature, than that which nature had woven for them on first entering
the light."
